Settling on a color for baby's room

When it comes to baby stuff, I'm of the "save our money for items that have more longevity" camp. The marketplace is saturated with more nursery-oriented decor than you could ever imagine. I have this image of landfills, overflowing with diapers, changing tables, cribs, glider rockers, and Winnie the Pooh paraphernalia.

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All I have to say is "yowsers". Like reader/colleague/pal Kelly comments, "Seems like designing a nursery can get as complicated as a full-blown kitchen remodel...if you let it."

I can barely get my act together putting the finishing touches on our living room (still haven't even purchased the "perfect" throw pillows yet). So the thought of going hog-crazy with our baby's room is frankly unrealistic. Items acquired so far: hand-me-down crib, hand-me-down shelves, old rug from our living room, cozy chair from downstairs, and a lovely bird kite/mobile left over from my office.  I intend to hunt down a dresser from craigslist, hit Ikea, or head over to our local unfinished furniture store to pick up a dresser. This will serve double duty as the changing table.

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If I end up going the Ikea route, here's a cute paint make-over I spotted on Apartment Therapy, using Otomi fabric prints to decorate the front face.

So while I'm taking the "use what I have" approach to most items in the nursery, I still have the wall colors to contend with.

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I've always been a lover of colored ceilings, so I know I'll be incorporating that element into our design. It doesn't have to be over-the-top, but I think it adds another dimension to your standard boxy room.

So, into the world of paint colors I delve.

Isn't it interesting how a color can look one way in one space, and completely different in another?

I helped a client select her perfect shade of blue (BM 1654 Ashwood Gray) for their bedroom, and wanted to give that color a shot in our nursery. No surprise there, it looks like a completely different color in our space.

Might have something to do with the oodles of light streaming through my client's windows, reflecting off the custardy- yellow house next door, that gives that blue it's green-undertone.  Also, her bedroom faces another direction from our nursery, so the light is different.

In our nursery, Ashwood Gray felt much more somber and I didn't get that turquoise-undertone I wanted.

Back to the paint store I went, for something more "spritely". (It's just way too hard to determine how a color will look based on those little chips.)

My next attempt was too far off the other end of the spectrum- Where are my sunglasses? This one is BM 758 House of Blues. Right undertone, wrong level of saturation.

See, even professionals don't always get it right the first time. Sometimes it's a matter of trial and error.

I was quite curious about C2's paint, so I ventured out to San Francisco to give their C2 1088 Banff a go.  While their paint is not all full-spectrum, they do use a 16-colorant European tinting system rather than the standard 12-colorant systems we're familiar with in most major paint brands.  I wanted to see for myself if the additional colorants made a big difference in how the color appeared.

C2's Banff is on the far left. Still too much red in the undertone. The middle swatch you see is the Ashwood Gray. On the far right, finally, I hit upon the perfect color: BM 723 Spring Rain. Bingo! Light, bright, turquoisy, but not too "in-your-face". Now I want to go back to my client's bedroom, hold up my sample board, and see how the two colors compare in her space.

For the ceiling in our nursery, I am going with a light lilac color that will hopefully set off my Bali Kite (I named her Paprika). We paint this weekend, so stay tuned for the end results!